Communalism as a fundamental dimension of culture

This essay does not dispute the authenticity of individualism and collectivism as dimensions of culture. However, existing literature has missed a fundamental dimension, communalism, and has mistakenly attributed the characteristics of communalism to collectivism. Here, I affirm the fundamental nature of communalism as a cultural dimension and discuss how its characteristics markedly differ form those of collectivism and individualism. I then examine how communication works in communalistic communities. I throw some light on the concept of cultural dualism and introduce personalism as an emerging social order in both individualistic societies and urban centers of communalistic societies.     

The Effect of IT Failure Impact and Personal Morality on IT Project Reporting Behavior

An individual's reluctance to report the actual status of a troubled project has recently received research attention as an important contributor to project failure. While there are a variety of factors influencing the reluctance to report, prior information systems research has focused on only situational factors such as risk, information asymmetry, and time pressure involved in the given situation. In this paper, we examine the effects of both situational and personal factors on an individual's reporting behavior within the rubric of the basic whistle-blowing model adapted from Dozier and Miceli . Specifically, we identify perceived impact of information technology (IT) failure as a situational factor and personal morality and willingness to communicate as personal factors, and investigate their effects on the assessments and decisions that individuals make about reporting the IT project's status. Based on the results of a controlled laboratory experiment, we found that perceived impact of IT failure directly affects an individual's assessment of whether a troubled project's status ought to be reported, exerting an indirect influence on willingness to report bad news, and that personal morality directly affects all three steps in the basic whistle-blowing model, as hypothesized. Willingness to communicate, however, was found not to affect an individual's willingness to report bad news. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.      

The effect of reward structures on allocating shared staffresources among interdependent software projects: an experimentalinvestigation

Organizational theorists have long proposed the use of organizational reward structures to enhance coordination between interdependent projects. In practice, however, the structuring of reward schemes has been problematic, leading in many cases to dysfunctional behavior. The purpose of the reported research is to investigate the impact of different reward structures on the allocation of shared staff resources among interdependent software projects. The research question was explored in the context of a role-playing project simulation game. Experimental dyads played the roles of managers on two concurrent software projects sharing a limited staff resource. Two reward structures were tested, one that rewarded subjects for maximizing their own outcome (an “individualistic orientation”) and the other rewarded subjects for maximizing joint outcome (a “cooperative orientation”). The results suggest that reward structures lead to greater interaction and to more effective strategies for utilizing the organization's staff resource, but they do not lead to less self-interested behavior. The findings of the current study extend the literature on reward structures beyond group performance on physical tasks to dynamic decision making     

A conceptual framework for international Web design

We develop a conceptual framework for exploring significant differences in how people from diverse cultural backgrounds and with diverse individual characteristics might perceive and use Web documents. This is the first stage of a large multistage empirical study of user satisfaction and effectiveness of various Web designs based on cultural and individual factors. We identify six cultural factors and six individual factors that could impact the effectiveness of Web documents. The six cultural factors include: power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, anxiety avoidance, long-term versus short-term orientation, and polychronic versus monochronic time orientation. The six individual factors include: demographics (age and gender), professional knowledge, information technology knowledge, flexibility, information processing abilities, and cultural knowledge. Based on the conceptual model proposed, we develop a number of testable, specific propositions on how Web document effectiveness could be impacted by the cultural and individual factors in various Web designs. In order to measure document effectiveness of each design, we identify components of Web document effectiveness as perceived usability, reliability, clarity, and comprehension that, in turn, influence readers' overall satisfaction with Web documents. Using the propositions presented, one can measure and analyze how cultural and individual factors influence users' satisfaction, which will assist researchers, educators, and communicators working with various Web designs     

Economic Individualism, Humanitarianism, and Welfare Reform: A Value-Based Account of Framing Effects

Over the years, scholars have demonstrated that media framing of political issues may significantly affect the way in which individuals interpret and think about these issues. However, a growing body of recent research has indicated that the impact of framing may vary due to individual differences. This study extends framing research by examining how individuals' core values might interact with news frames in affecting their cognitions and opinions of welfare reform. We presented respondents with newspaper articles that framed the issue of welfare reform by emphasizing the need for public assistance or strict work requirements. Results indicated that both news frames and individual values (i.e., humanitarianism and individualism) had a significant impact on individuals' issue thoughts and attitudes. Further, individual values and news frames had some significant interaction effects on audience responses.     

The Processes of Adopting Multimedia and Interactivity in Three Online Newsrooms

This article examines the material culture of newsroom practices by focusing on the dynamics of the processes through which news workers adopt new technologies. More specifically, it looks at some key factors that shape the adoption of multimedia and interactive technologies in online newspapers. Through ethnographic case studies of innovations in 3 online newsrooms, I show that variations in organizational structures, work practices, and representations of the users are related to different ways in which members of the newsroom appropriate these technologies. I draw from this analysis to reflect on issues related to the technological dimension of editorial work and the dynamics of media convergence.     

How Verbalizers and Visualizers Process the Newspaper Environment

This article addresses the question of how people process news photographs and news stories as a function of their scores on 2 scales designed to measure 2 "cognitive styles" called visualizing and verbalizing. Although newspaper practitioners believe news photos enhance the newspaper reading process, research has not demonstrated a clearly positive impact. Education theory about visualizing and verbalizing suggests these 2 individual-specific indicators may explain why news photos sometimes help and sometimes hinder. The results show that high visualizing scores did not enhance recall of stories or photos or even enhance story interest. In contrast, high verbalizers found all stories more interesting and recalled both stories and photos better than low verbalizers. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive style theory and its role in how people process visual and verbal news information.     

Just Laugh! You Don't Need to Remember: The Effects of Entertainment Media on Political Information Acquisition and Information Processing in Political Judgment

This study investigates whether the entertainment media produce different patterns of political information acquisition and information processing (i.e., online- vs. memory-based information processing) in making political judgments (i.e., evaluation of a political actor) compared to the news media. Using an adult sample (aged 18–64 years), the study adopts an experimental design using the collections of real news and entertainment programs ( The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ) on the topic of the U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Chief Justice nomination processes in addition to a baseline group exposed to science documentaries. The results indicate that compared to news media, entertainment media are less effective in acquiring factual information, particularly in retaining issue and procedure knowledge. The study, for the first time, reveals that entertainment media facilitate online-based political information processing, whereas news media promote memory-based political information processing. The implications for the methodological and theoretical development of the impact of entertainment media and for citizen competence and participation in the recent changes in the political information environment are discussed.     

Managing Cultural Variation in Software Process Improvement: A Comparison of Methods for Subculture Assessment

The scale and complexity of change in software process improvement (SPI) are considerable and managerial attention to organizational culture during SPI can therefore potentially contribute to successful outcomes. However, we know little about the impact of variations in organizational subculture on SPI initiatives. On this backdrop, we present an exploratory study of a large-scale SPI project in a Danish high-technology company, Terma. Two of its business units-integrated systems (ISY) and airborne systems (ASY)-followed similar approaches over a three-year period, but with quite different outcomes. While ISY reached capability maturity model integration (CMMI) level 2 as planned, ASY struggled to implement even modest improvements. To help explain these differences, we analyzed the underlying organizational culture within ISY and ASY using two different methods for subculture assessment. The study demonstrates how variations in culture across software organizations can have important implications for SPI outcomes. Furthermore, it provides insights into how software managers can practically assess subcultures to inform decisions about and help prepare plans for SPI initiatives.     

软件信息化风险管理研究

IT系统建设普遍具有投入高、业务影响广、安全要求高等特点,系统建设的不确定因素比较多,具有很强的风险性,加强软件项目的信息化风险管理,对于提高软件系统建设的成功率具有重要意义。本文结合公司软件项目实施,对公司软件项目的信息化风险管理进行了研究与分析,构建了公司软件项目全面风险管理体系,体系由八个相互关联的模块组成,分别是风险管理环境,风险管理目标与政策设定,风险监测与识别,风险评估,风险定价与处置,内部控制,风险信息处理和报告,风险持续改进。     

Third-Person Effect and Internet Pornography: The Influence of Collectivism and Internet Self-Efficacy

Within the context of Internet pornography, a survey of both U.S. and South Korean college students ( N = 232) examined the influence of individualism-collectivism and media self-efficacy on the third-person effect. Two findings emerged: First, this study demonstrates the third-person effect of the Internet for the first time within Western culture. Participants perceived that Internet pornography's negative effect was greater on others than themselves, and this third-person perception predicted support for Internet censorship. Second, although prior research failed to support conjecture that culture shapes third-person perception, these data show culture as an important antecedent; collectivism diminished third-person perception and subsequent support for Internet pornography censorship. The impact of Internet self-efficacy was not substantial. The influence of collectivism on the third-person effect generally and public perceptions of Internet pornography in particular signals its import to scholars interested in social policy and social influence.     

Implementing and improving the SEI Risk Management method in a university software project

Although risk management approaches appeared more than one decade ago, there is the evidence of low penetration rate of their techniques in current software projects. One of the most widely known methods is the SEI Software Continuous Risk Management (SEI-CRM) method. This paper addresses the usage of the SEI-CRM method in a big university software development project. Moreover, the study we carried out suggests that SEI-CRM is limited in terms of the organizational risk perspective. This research is expected to contribute with the knowledge on risk management for software development projects by for which we propose to extend the SEI-CRM method with some organizational risk factors that we have found relevant from our study.     

Fear of Negative Evaluation and the Reluctance to Transmit Bad News

An experiment was conducted to determine whether reluctance to transmit an overheard message intended for a stranger depends on (1) fear of negative evaluation by that stranger and (2) fear of the message's anticipated consequences for him. It was reasoned that a messenger would fear negative evaluation if he were identified by the recipient. The hypothesis that bad news would be transmitted less completely and spontaneously than good news was supported. Unexpectedly, anonymity did not interact with news content. Instead, greater communication occurred under nonanonymity than under anonymity. These findings, along with some supportive correlational data, are reinterpreted from an attribution-theoretical viewpoint.     

Rescuing Troubled Software Projects by Team Transformation: A Case Study With an ERP Project

Many software projects fail, whether failure is measured in terms of budget, schedule, or some other requirement. The causes of such failures are many, but are not always easily recognized. This is not the least due to the human dimension of corporate activities, as spurious or misdiagnosed issues in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects can take on a life of their own and become a magnet for company politics. This paper reports an industrial case in which the senior management attempted to deal with a troubled ERP implementation (SAP R/3) in an international fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company during 2001 and 2002. This paper reflects this dimension as it uses original emails and PowerPoint slides to recount a number of representative episodes in a troubled but ultimately successful project. At the heart of this success is the realization that whereas it can be difficult and time-consuming to do root-cause analyses, it is relatively simple to identify problem owners. In this case, the senior management without IT backgrounds turned around a failing project by reorganizing the team structure according to process areas so that issues in each process area had one problem owner. We summarize the management's actions into a troubleshooting framework, and in addition, suggest three actions for rescuing troubled projects: keep the project manager but narrow down the manager's scope of responsibility to one or two process areas; assign the right people to be responsible for other process areas; and have the General Manager chair the ERP meetings.     

Explaining Journalists' Trust in Public Institutions Across 20 Countries: Media Freedom,Corruption, and Ownership Matter Most

Building on the assumption that journalists' attitudes toward public institutions can contribute to a decline in public trust, this article sets out to identify the driving forces behind journalists' confidence in public institutions. Based on interviews with 2000 journalists from 20 countries, variation in trust is modeled across the individual level of journalists, the organizational level of news media, and the societal level of countries. Our findings suggest that the principal determinants of journalists' trust emanate from a country's political performance, from state ownership in the media, and from the extent to which people tend to trust each other. Journalism culture and power distance, however, seem to have relatively little weight in the calculus of journalists' institutional trust.     

Sharing knowledge through intranets: a study of organizationalculture and intranet implementation

Explores factors affecting the implementation of intranets, which are the technology upon which many knowledge management (KM) systems are built. Because intranets facilitate the sharing of employee knowledge, many believe that organizational culture influences intranet implementation. The results of this study found that intranet implementation is facilitated by a culture that emphasizes an atmosphere of trust and concern for other people (ethical culture), flexibility and innovation (developmental culture), and policies, procedures and information management (hierarchical culture). Management should ensure that the proper values are in place to optimize intranet implementation and to facilitate knowledge sharing     

基于信令监测的终端性能与用户感知分析系统

在移动互联网时代,终端对用户感知的影响非常关键.一方面,终端品牌众多,质量良莠不齐,带来了终端问题的多样性.另一方面,终端与应用软件、不同厂家产品的兼容性,也带来问题的不可调和.本文主要是从终端维度上挖掘出影响用户感知的短板问题,定位出可能的终端性能或者是兼容性上的问题,为终端市场营销和资源投放进行总体的方向指引,从终端维度上提升用户的使用感知和网络体验.     

Why software projects escalate: the importance of project management constructs

Previous research has documented that software projects are frequently prone to escalation. While the escalation literature acknowledges that project-related (as well as psychological, social, and organizational) factors can promote escalation behavior, there has been no investigation regarding the role that project management factors may have in discriminating between projects that escalate and those that do not. The objective of this study was to explore whether project management constructs could be used to distinguish between projects that escalated and those that did not. Based on a survey administered to IS audit and control professionals, data were gathered on projects that did not escalate as well as those that did escalate. We then applied logistic regression to model the relationship between various project management constructs and project escalation. The model was then evaluated for its ability to correctly classify the projects. The results of our research suggest that a logistic regression model based on project management constructs is capable of discriminating between projects that escalate and those that do not. Moreover, the model compares favorably to a previously published logistic regression model based on constructs derived from escalation theory. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

User-centred Design of Web Sites and the Redesign of LineOne

This paper describes the results of a study of the LineOne Internet site by members of the user centred design group. As a result of the study the site was redesigned. It also gives examples of successful Internet sites and looks at the components which contribute to this success. The original LineOne home page was seen as cluttered and confusing by Focus group participants. There were too many menus and women commented that, with news and sport dominating the home page, it seemed to be aimed at men. Many wanted to customise, for example, the news, so that items of interest to them were highlighted. The right hand menu was not visible on standard 640 x 480 pixel screens, which was one of the reasons why people were not accessing many areas of the site. Some of the titles on the menu bar were also fairly obscure. The ability to search the site from the top level was seen as desirable by those interviewed. As a result of the work done by the User Centred Design group, the home page was redesigned. Users can now set filters to further customise the information they receive, such as news and entertainment, and the site has received very favourable reviews in the specialist press.     

The challenge of accurate software project status reporting: a two-stage model incorporating status errors and reporting bias

Software project managers perceive and report project status. Recognizing that their status perceptions might be wrong and that they may not faithfully report what they believe, leads to a natural question-how different is true software project status from reported status? Here, the authors construct a two-stage model which accounts for project manager errors in perception and bias that might be applied before reporting status to executives. They call the combined effect of errors in perception and bias, project status distortion . The probabilistic model has roots in information theory and uses discrete project status from traffic light reporting. The true statuses of projects of varying risk were elicited from a panel of five experts and formed the model input. The same experts estimated the frequency with which project managers make status errors, while the authors created different bias scenarios in order to investigate the impact of different bias levels. The true status estimates, error estimates, and bias levels allow calculation of perceived and reported status. The results indicate that at the early stage of the development process most software projects are already in trouble, that project managers are overly optimistic in their perceptions, and that executives receive status reports very different from reality, depending on the risk level of the project and the amount of bias applied by the project manager. Key findings suggest that executives should be skeptical of favorable status reports and that for higher risk projects executives should concentrate on decreasing bias if they are to improve the accuracy of project reporting.